User Reviews

On the day of the California Presidential Primary, between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM, Jack kidnaps Ted Cofell following a lead through an e-mail to Jamey and tries to break his control using information about his profile provided by Nina. They go to a parking area where Ted is supposed to meet Kevin Carroll, Ted speaks in Serbian, has a heart problem and dies. Jack concludes that the situation is not only about David Palmer, but about himself, and he asks Nina to investigate his classified assignment to Belgrade and Kosovo in a mission called Operation Nightfall. Meanwhile, Andre Drazen meets Ira Gaines and gives thirty minutes to find Jack Bauer. Rick gives a gun to Teri, and when Eli comes to the warehouse to kill them, she shoots him twice. David meets Carl to discuss about George Farrigano, and Carl tells that power has a price to be paid. When David says that Carl does not work for him anymore, Carl tells that they have worked for powerful people that have invested lots of money on David. Jack ties Kevin, hits him and he agrees to take Jack to his family.

In the eleventh episode of "24", the naive David Palmer, who probably has never read "The Prince", finally finds that power has a price to be paid. How could a man like David be a senator and candidate to president without the support of groups with strong economical and political interests? Jack finally is able to capture one terrorist alive and apparently he is driving to his family that is in a critical situation after the death of Eli. The loyalty of Nina to Jack Bauer is very special in an agency that does not need external enemies to implode. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "10:00"

Aside from the pilot and the stunning finale, this is my favorite episode of 24's mesmerizing first year (though "day" would perhaps sound better). Why? Because it shows Jack Bauer, one of the best television characters of all time (yes, he is that well-defined) in the most bad-ass of behaviors, proving he is a worthy successor to Die Hard's John McClane (the first really vulnerable action hero ever to hit the screen).

Not that it should be very surprising, given the man's mood: still unaware of Teri and Kim's whereabouts, he coldly kidnaps Ted Cofell, a guy whose name is apparently linked to Ira Gaines and his crew, and forces him to cooperate, whether the poor fella likes it or not. Meanwhile, a new player enters the game as Gaines receives a phone call from his employer, one Andre Drazen (Zeljiko Ivanek), who orders him to execute Bauer's wife and daughter. As for CTU, they are still very far from catching up with their rogue agent.

Plotwise, this is a great episode as it introduces a new character and a new angle from which to look at things, as Andre's words and actions, embodied with lethal charm by TV veteran Ivanek (best known for playing Governor Devlin on Oz), suggest there might be more to this season's events than what viewers and federal agents alike thought in the beginning. Most of all, this sudden shift of perspective is believable and enables the main storyline to develop in an unexpected, original way, something that has been kept in subsequent seasons (Day 4 notwithstanding).

What really makes the eleventh hour stand out, though, is the introduction of another series benchmark: Jack's interrogation scenes. Complete with optional guns, knives or just good old fists, every year of the show features at least one moment when the protagonist has to intimidate suspects and retrieve information. Thanks to Sutherland's nuanced performance, those scenes never get repetitive, but none of them can surpass the pure sense of real menace that the very first interrogation conveys. "You probably don't think I could force this towel down your throat, but trust me, I can. All the way." Jack tells Cofell as it all seems to turn nasty. "Except that I'd hold onto this little bit at the end. When your stomach starts to digest the towel, I pull it out. Taking your stomach lining with it. Most people probably take about a week to die. It's very painful." Tense and almost unbearably nerve-wrecking, it's so good it nearly makes a minimalistic, Jason Bourne-style action sequence set in a car look stiff, sticking to the mantra of Alias creator J. J. Abrams: the dialogue scenes should be as important as the bits where stuff blows up.

Jack continues his perpetual motion move to find Kim and Teri. The insiders find a name for him to check, so he kidnaps the guy and takes him away in his limo. Jack is sure he can lead them to the women, so he puts on a fierce, threatening posture. This guy is bad news as is his next encounter. More forces assert themselves with Palmer and the psychiatrist that treated Palmer's son. Meanwhile, the end seems near for Kim and Teri.

Ted Cofell's Serbian has nothing to do with the language, The pronunciation is horrible. He got all the grammar wrong as well. When you are portraying. Now, if you are going to present all them Serbians, Russians, Iranians, Afghanis, North Koreans, Chinese and whoever else as bogeymen threatening your national security and precious freedom, at least get actors who will speak those languages properly. Firstly, it's disrespectful towards these peoples and nations. Secondly, it makes the whole story less palpable and believable. There is nothing more important in a dramatic piece than the proper use of language.